CK3 is too easy

[JackTheHat23]

The main problem I have with CK3 isn't lack of content. The game is just too easy. You can start as any single county ruler on the map and become the most powerful realm in the game within 50 years. The defensive pacts in CK2 slowed your expansion but no such thing exist in CK3. You can hamstring yourself with self imposed restrictions or roleplay as a pacifist but no existing mechanics in the game can stop you declaring war after war conquering massive areas of territory without consequence. Yes, you'll get the occasional peasant/populist revolt but they're so easy to put down they're more of an annoyance than a threat.
Men at arms with their massive bonuses can wipe out armies 5 times their size so you rarely ever need to raise your levies in any war. Prestige and piety aren't an issue either. After 10-20 years gameplay you won't be short of either. All of your rulers will be living legends and religious icons no matter what.
This has been made worse with the latest expansion. Now you can go to University and make yourself even more powerful with an improved education trait and unlock 3 lifestyle traits.
I understand that the game needs to be accessible for casual players but I'd love to see some kind of hardcore difficulty to add challenge for veteran players. Or maybe a mechanic that depletes your available manpower and economic efficiency to reflect war casualties.

 

[Graian]

Absolutely, love the game but playing another run is just boring. Well, this problem is around for years. Don't know if the dev's will tackle this anytime

 

[TacticalRetreat]

I've been playing for over 1200 hours so I guess I like ''boring'' games. I don't know what your problem is.

 

[Graian]

I've been playing for over 1200 hours so I guess I like ''boring'' games. I don't know what your problem is.

Well, yes you can. But many have different requirements for fun. CK is a game that tries to make a balancing act between strategy and roleplay.
As of now, there is no real strategy in the game. Especially with all the new feature that makes your character so strong in a short amount of time.
This game is not challenging when I only need 30 years to become unbeatable by the game. There is no real challenge in this game and challenge is fun. So for me it is not fun.

 

[Breebelbox]

I've been playing for over 1200 hours so I guess I like ''boring'' games. I don't know what your problem is.

I mean, I think he made quite clear what his problem is. He finds the game too easy in its current state, like many people (me included) do. For people who also look for a challenge - especially in the strategic part of the game - the lack of competent AI, more game rules and higher difficulties like hard and very hard (we only have easy and normal) can cause the game to become boring quite quickly.

If you enjoy the game as it is, that's great, have a lot of fun!

It would just be nice if people who look for challenges in games could also enjoy the game as you do.

People are different and like different things. I don't think you can please everybody with just the two existing difficulties. So additional difficulties and/or game rules could solve that problem without taking anything away from anybody.

But unfortunately I'm not sure if we will ever see this happening which is a shame because other than the missing difficulty CK3 is a great game, IMHO.

 

[Voy]

I have to agree that the late-game is too... flawless. Everyone got illustrious dynasties with fame beyond kings of legends. The dynasty legacy perks feel unearned when even my most mediocre of heirs can take advantage of them and exceed any expectations when realistically they're not beyond falling over their own feet. All of the numbers go up, be it development, troop count and income. Almost never are there any setbacks.

What if instead of granting all of these forever perks, characters need to do certain things to unlock the benefits, perhaps even tied into the character perk system? What if the numbers were largely consistent but to increase it you had to centralise the realm instead to get full capacity of it (more so than now)? What if marriage was less prestige-driven late-game (too much meaningless inbreeding) and more political on average? What if negative perks were actually shunned? What if geography forced you to reconsider your conquest and political control could be overstretched?

IDK, the late-game is quite dull. It is "too easy" in many ways. And the map ends up quite uninspiring. I wish more things matter to make it more complex.

 

[The Shacks]

Finally finding a challenging run myself, with all the latest DLCs as the Rurikids, with Historic Invasions on. Made sure to fling out a dozen or so rurikid princes in charge of their own grand princedoms. Its really kept the assassination up, especially as I set inheritance to male only. Each male line of the descendants of Rurik are forever murdering each other and myself to put their line closer to the Tsardom. Genuinely never seen so many assassinations, its great. Between that and the Cumans and Poland glomping around with event troops. Actually feels hard and like I may play a full game. Granted this is such an edge case and usually i'm bored after a hundred years due to lack of challenge.

 

[Cronus865]

Paradox has acknowledged the game might be too easy right now both here and on Reddit, but that there's a new audience for CK3 that they have to consider as well that aren't your typical Paradox players, so I guess there's a balancing act where they don't want to alienate too many players by making the game harder or more inaccessible to the newer crowd. They mentioned difficulty should be more customizable through things like game rules, which we've seen some added recently that can make the game more/less difficult. I still think it's too easy regardless of that though, but they are aware and might still introduce more options at some point.

 

[gekj]

try this mod : https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874007571&searchtext=obfusckate

 

[Emperor 1997]

Well, yes you can. But many have different requirements for fun. CK is a game that tries to make a balancing act between strategy and roleplay.
As of now, there is no real strategy in the game. Especially with all the new feature that makes your character so strong in a short amount of time.
This game is not challenging when I only need 30 years to become unbeatable by the game. There is no real challenge in this game and challenge is fun. So for me it is not fun.

Yes and in 30 years in the Game, you can finish 4 Dynasty Legacies, where all the other AI Dynasties are still at their first Dynasty Legacy, thanks to the Culture Tradition, that grants Renown for building/upgrading 1 temple in a County or the Castle Keepers Tradition(it is still powerful, even Paradox has nerfed this Tradition, because every Castle under your Dynasty counts).

And the insane amount of Renown for having a lot of landed Rulers in your Dynasty through Tournaments and other things.

 

[Flockingbird]

even my most mediocre of heirs can take advantage of them and exceed any expectations when realistically they're not beyond falling over their own feet

I have never made it to the late game (I play so slowly that there’s always a new pack or two out before I decide to abandon my current game and try out the new stuff!)—but this description seems pretty realistic to me given my real-life observations of the benefits enjoyed by the scions of powerful families. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s fun to have in the game!

 

[vandevere]

The problem with blanket statements like "CK3 is too easy" is that not everyone does find CK3 too easy. On top of that, you have several different playstyles to account for, some of which would be actively harmed by some of the nerfs I've seen proposed.

The best way to deal with this is not to drop blanket nerfs on everyone. It would be to jack up the Game Rules, make them truly capable of supporting every playstyle, with the Game Rules running all the way from "IWin" to "I lose" with myriad settings in between...

 

[Aidanator800]

I just was playing a game as the Kingdom of Croatia, and with literally my second ruler (who ended up being a woman) I got deposed due to facing 3 different factions at once. The Kingdom then descended into a death-spiral of constant revolts to replace each usurper king, and if you call that "too easy" then I don't know what to say.

 

[Graian]

The problem with blanket statements like "CK3 is too easy" is that not everyone does find CK3 too easy. On top of that, you have several different playstyles to account for, some of which would be actively harmed by some of the nerfs I've seen proposed.

The best way to deal with this is not to drop blanket nerfs on everyone. It would be to jack up the Game Rules, make them truly capable of supporting every playstyle, with the Game Rules running all the way from "IWin" to "I lose" with myriad settings in between...

No one demands a nerf. The biggest demand is in favor of a hard and very hard difficutly like in EUIV. But the devs already stated that they don't like the idea of just "buffing" enemys with another difficulty level, which in a way is also quite a good thought, but ensures that we as players see nothing in this direction so far.
CK3 has so far only seen an expansion of role-playing, which of course pleases many players, but the game lacks strategic depth. That's why some people call this game a medieval SIMS spinoff.

 

[Genocidalvirus]

The game has just become a stat-stacking organizational nightmare. Things that need attention

• BIGGEST REQUEST - External Factions/Pacts that band against Warmongers with Game rules for (on-player only, on- all, off)
• Items having pros but no cons and AI not equipping them
• AI should not allow everyone in their court to be married off ie. great traits and 20+ stat people and prowess (OR just require me to know about a person before I learn all their stats)
• AI not utilizing actions with their couple partner, like seducing/romance when married, converting religion of their partner
• Button to mass demand conversation from everyone in court.
• More mixed/negative traits or a way to counter all the positive ones
• Way less lowborn or an option to lower the amount of them
• A purpose for building rapport with other neighboring leaders besides preventing attacks like trade

I have played thousands of hours in Paradox games, this one being my favorite, the AI doesn't need a flat bonus to be stronger, just a way for them to band together and a purpose for the player to keep them alive.

 

[Eltener]

The problem with blanket statements like "CK3 is too easy" is that not everyone does find CK3 too easy.

That's just not a useful thing to say at all. Put any Pdx game in front of a 6 year old and they'll say it's too difficult but that doesn't mean anyone should care.

 

[Breebelbox]

That's just not a useful thing to say at all. Put any Pdx game in front of a 6 year old and they'll say it's too difficult but that doesn't mean anyone should care.

Yeah, I never get this "argument" which isn't actually an argument at all.

Of course people find different things difficult or easy and have different definitions of what is fun for them. And nobody is wrong or right about it. Games are supposed to be fun for you as an individual.

That's why pretty much all the games I know offer different, optional difficulties and/or game rules like easy, normal and hard. It's just CK 3 which only offers easy and normal and let's a whole group of players without the appropriate settings.

I guess one of the best examples I know of how to deal with difficulty settings is Rimworld, I can't even recall right now how many different settings there are to customize an enjoyable experience for everyone who is into this kind of game.

 

[Emperor 1997]

Way less lowborn or an option to lower the amount of them

If the Devs would do this, you will probably not be able to play this Game at all.

And don't understand Lowborns as being Peasants, treat them rather as being Minor Nobles.


In my Opinion, every generated character should start as Lowborn, Dynasty Characters should only come into the Game via Births.

 

[Torredebelem]

The main problem I have with CK3 isn't lack of content. The game is just too easy. You can start as any single county ruler on the map and become the most powerful realm in the game within 50 years. The defensive pacts in CK2 slowed your expansion but no such thing exist in CK3. You can hamstring yourself with self imposed restrictions or roleplay as a pacifist but no existing mechanics in the game can stop you declaring war after war conquering massive areas of territory without consequence. Yes, you'll get the occasional peasant/populist revolt but they're so easy to put down they're more of an annoyance than a threat.
Men at arms with their massive bonuses can wipe out armies 5 times their size so you rarely ever need to raise your levies in any war. Prestige and piety aren't an issue either. After 10-20 years gameplay you won't be short of either. All of your rulers will be living legends and religious icons no matter what.
This has been made worse with the latest expansion. Now you can go to University and make yourself even more powerful with an improved education trait and unlock 3 lifestyle traits.
I understand that the game needs to be accessible for casual players but I'd love to see some kind of hardcore difficulty to add challenge for veteran players. Or maybe a mechanic that depletes your available manpower and economic efficiency to reflect war casualties.

Have you tried mods? There are mods that turn the game more challenging.

 

[X_FloW]

I've been playing for over 1200 hours so I guess I like ''boring'' games. I don't know what your problem is.

I have over 2600 hours mind you and I still agree with them, the game becomes too repetitive due to every region playing exactly the same with small exceptions to Iberia and Vikings.